surgery

One of Chad’s co-workers’ brothers is in the tree biz and considering the last bid we got to address our tree issues came in at over $1000 – we asked them to give us a bid.

“Friend of the family” discounts included – they came in at a smidge over 25% of what the other guys were asking. Hired!

The crew… The father and his son – arrived first thing in the morning and before I had the rest of my coffee, chain-saws were growling outside our windows.

On their first break we started chatting I heard the whole history about how the dad, a machinist, had been trimming trees as a sideline for twenty five years… After getting laid off and going through a financially devastating divorce, it was his son who encouraged him to go into business with the trees full-time.

When the conversation turned to what the hell do I do for a living that I can sit around on a Monday at 10am in my sweatpants and a ratty dead t-shirt, I explained the business of graphic design, corporate identity development and visual branding.

I assured them my vocation wasn’t the glamourous gravy it was before the Great Economic Correction of 2001, and showed them my portfolio.

They got wide eyed and by the end of their brake the dad was interested in what I could do for them based on a barter. The dad ran out to the truck and brought in some flyers they made on their home printer and sheepishly presented them to me.

I told him I could work up a pitch and see if he liked it and if he got the “whole package” concept I spoke of. He told me to sketch some things out and call him later.

I threw another pot of coffee on, went right to work and had a pitch for them to look at before they left. 

The dad was a little iffy about the name I came up with because tree-trimmin’ men are generally slurred as “dumb monkeys”. I explained about the power of banking on humor and preconceived notions and by the end of the presentation he was sold.

He’s sleeping on it but it looks like we’re going to get an identity’s worth of some improvements around the house. (the dad’s sort of a jack-of-all-trades).

Yesterday, for the first time in quite a while I had “fun” working on something. I’m sure it’s a combination of, well.. DUH – the “monkey thing”, but also helping out two hard working guys trying to make a go at it who normally wouldn’t be able to afford something like an identity and marketing campaign.

I’ve got more work to do to refine the quickies I worked up for them… but I’m looking forward to it.

Now I’m wondering what can we do to get more fun projects with equal amounts of freedom.

Maybe we should create a pricing schedule for small companies and go after that market.

Maybe I should stop acting like I’m blogging and find a better logoface for TreeMonkey.